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PJ wasn’t sure why being a victim was any better here, but she let Lydia talk. She gave a weak smile and nod to Ellis, knowing Lydia’s biting ways often hurt him.
The woman was intense and could be difficult to deal with, but she was damn good at her job. She took care of everything for all of them on tour, and they couldn’t function without her. They all made concessions because of it.
Ellis and Lydia were both equally as devoted to PJ and her career; they simply acted on that in different ways with their very different personalities.
But, right now PJ couldn’t worry about Ellis’s feelings. Her mind whirled.
She could handle Kurt’s comments. She’d grown a thick skin in this industry, and a few embarrassing words couldn’t do very much to damage her.
But that wasn’t what had her hands shaking and her chest feeling like someone had it in a vice, twisting the breath from her body. No, it was the knowledge that someone had gotten into her private journal that sent PJ’s heart pounding.
Did they have the whole thing? Did they know everything? PJ blinked as she fought back tears. That journalcould notget out.
She didn’t listen to the rest of Lydia’s plans as her mind raced back to the last time she’d written in her journal. Two nights ago, and she was absolutely positive she’d put it away when she was finished.
“I’m going back to the hotel,” she said as she handed the iPad to Ellis and grabbed her bag. She didn’t want to face anyone else. She glanced at her phone and saw several missed calls from her parents.
They might be her parents and she knew they loved her, but they’d already dealt with a lot when she was younger.Now this?Hearing about their daughter’s sex life in excruciating detail?
No. She didn’t want to talk to them right now. And, she needed to find out how bad this was. She needed to know if that journalist had the whole journal or just a piece of it.
Her bodyguards, Carl and Jeff, helped her slip out of the building and bundled her into her car. She sank into the welcoming softness of the leather seat and took a deep breath, bracing herself as Carl shut the door.
He would follow in a large SUV while Jeff sat in the front seat with her driver, Moore. Both men were silent as they pulled out of the secured parking garage and onto the city street. They had to know she was in no mood to talk to anyone after the night’s events.
When PJ’s career as one of the youngest country singers in the United States—and then one of the biggest crossover pop singers in the world—took off at the age of fifteen, she’d had a short time when she struggled with alcohol addiction and a spiraling private life, but she’d since cleaned herself up.
Now, most people said she handled the spotlight better than a lot of stars. At twenty-nine, she was better equipped to deal with the pressures than she had been at fifteen.
But, tonight had pushed those boundaries. Before the car had gone two blocks, PJ read her journal words on Facebook posts, in tweets, every site she pulled up on her iPhone. Private clips with personal details about their intimate relationship….
PJ’s hands shook as she pushed the button to engage the privacy panel between the driver’s seat and the passenger area before opening the small Coach bag she carried with her everywhere.
Swiping at her tears, she felt inside the lining of her bag, but she already knew she wouldn’t find it. The USB drive, designed to look like a tube of lipstick, was no longer tucked into the tear in the lining of her bag. It was gone.
She closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the cool seat. The precautions she’d taken with the journal should have been enough. She’d never kept her journal on paper, never kept it on her computer or stored it in a cloud drive. It didn’t take a genius to know that would have left her open to someone stealing it.
Privacy wasn’t something that existed in her world, and she knew the chances of someone finding her journal if she kept it online or on her laptop were too great. But, she never thought anyone would actually find the hidden drive.
Even if someone spotted it, they would have thought it was an old lipstick, and she’d never told anyone it was there.
She’d gotten used to keeping the journal in rehab and had never given up the habit. It was her respite, her outlet for things that couldn’t even go into her songs. Things she couldn’t tell anyone. And, now it was out there.
She tried not to panic as she thought about all that was in the journal, all of the private details that whoever had taken it would be able to sell. Lord knows, they’d probably made a ton selling the entries about Kurt to JMZ’sCelebrity News, the station that seemed to be the originating point for the Kurt Tolleson interview tonight.
How much would they get for selling it? And, did she have any hope of getting it back before they did?
PJ swiped at the rest of her tears, hoping her mascara wasn’t running down her cheeks. She gazed out the window at the traffic that kept the town car moving at a crawl as it made its way to her hotel. She’d have to call soon. It was time to warn her Aunt Susie and Uncle Brian about what might be released. They would need to be prepared.
Chapter 2
Gabe Sawyer was in as foul a mood as he’d ever been. He stared out the floor-to-ceiling windows that lined one wall of his hotel suite, providing a view of the New York City skyline that was just one of the things that made his hotels famous.
The opulence that surrounded him was nothing but the best—furnishings with rich fabrics and textures that screamed lavish and wrapped visitors in luxury and comfort. The off-white tones with deep garnet and orange accents added to the beauty of the room and matched the flowers that graced vases strategically placed throughout the suite.
His cell phone rang, drawing his attention away from the ice cubes melting in the glass of whiskey on the glass end table beside him.
Caller ID showedJack Suttonwas calling….
